After one week, five games and 1,057 points, the Canadian Elite Basketball League is chewing things over while preparing to do it all again.

The fledgling cross-Canada circuit enters its second week of competitive existence with four games, including two featuring the Saskatchewan Rattlers. They’ll play a home-and-home set with the Hamilton Honey Badgers Thursday and Saturday, with the first game slated for Saskatoon’s SaskTel Centre at 7 p.m.

“I think people are incredibly happy, and surprised, about the level of play. It’s fantastic. It’s fast. It’s pro ball,” says Lee Genier, the league’s president and chief operating officer for western operations.

The CEBL opened with strong reviews, and the challenge is to grow off that first week.

The Rattlers tipped off their season last Thursday with a 99-97 loss to the Niagara River Lions, a game that drew 3,399 onlookers who got louder and more enthusiastic as the night moved along.

Saskatchewan followed it up with their first win, a 130-110 victory over the host Guelph Nighthawks two days later.

The Honey Badgers, Saskatchewan’s Thursday and Saturday opponent, opened their 2019 schedule with a 106-83 victory over the visiting Edmonton Stingers on Sunday.

The league continues to feel its way forward on some issues — on Wednesday afternoon, statistics from Week 1 couldn’t be readily found on the CEBL website, and a note read: “We are currently updating and auditing our website to ensure a more robust statistics and score package for each game. Thank you for you patience as these elements are resolved.”

We do know that some Rattlers standouts emerged from that opening week: Tavrion Dawson — who played Division 1 NCAA hoops at Cal State Northridge — scored 29 and 27 points, respectively, in those two contests while hitting 19 of 27 total shots and grabbing 19 rebounds.

Negus Webster-Chan, who played collegiately at Missouri and Hawaii before entering the minor-pro ranks, collected a team-high 28 points and seven assists during the win over Guelph.

Now they’re back in Saskatoon, feeling a little more settled, and waiting to see what kind of crowd awaits them on Thursday. Genier says there will be “a little different look and feel” Thursday as the team tweaks the configuration and other things.

“People absolutely loved it, and we’re going to keep growing from it as we head into the game on Thursday,” Genier said. “There’s always some hiccups when you’re producing a new game, and there was some dead-air time (on the live stream) that made me cringe, but we fixed it and it’s going to be much better this week.

“I think (fans) like the mix between the newness of it and the entertainment. You’ll see some different things this Thursday from a fan perspective.”